Getting the story straight
by TheySpellAlice
Summary: Set a couple days after the final battle, but before the epilogue. Hiccup and Astrid talk about the details Astrid left out of her 'what if' scenario, which leads to them exploring new things back at the spot where everything changed. (RTTE S6 spoilers!) Only Part 3 is rated M; the other two are K.
1. Part One: The Docks

"You were wrong earlier, you know," Hiccup said.

Astrid turned to look at him, startled. She was sitting alone at the edge of the docks with her legs hanging over the water, and the wooden planks creaked as Hiccup bent down to join her.

"Hello to you, too," she said, her voice hoarse and bleary. "Wrong about what?"

It was two days after the battle on Berserker Island, and the gang was back at Berk—a much shorter trip than heading all the way back to the Edge—recovering. Nobody had been seriously wounded, thank Thor, but once the adrenaline wore off, it became painfully clear how hard the Riders had been pushing themselves. Week after week of skirmishes with Krogan's fliers had slowly worn the gang down, but the final battle left them totally exhausted.

The crash hit them hard, and after arriving early in the morning and swapping information with the council, everyone slept until well into the evening. There had been a feast in the Great Hall that night to celebrate the victory, but with the chief still bedridden and the Dragon Riders practically falling asleep into their mugs, it was one of the tamest parties Berk had ever seen. The guests of honour left early— _all_ of them, even the twins—and slept until late the next day.

It was just getting dark now. The few hours Hiccup had been awake so far he'd spent sitting at his father's bedside, talking quietly to his dad. Stoick had been drifting in and out of consciousness, and was lucid enough to smile in the right places when Hiccup told him how their victory had gone down. He wasn't out of the woods yet—Gothi and Gobber confirmed that—but things were already looking a lot more encouraging. He was sleeping again now, and Hiccup had left Toothless and Skullcrusher both by his side to go for a walk.

Hiccup smiled and took Astrid's hand as they sat together by the water.

"That story you told me," he said. "About what life would've been like if I hadn't shot Toothless down."

Astrid raised her eyebrows. "Really? You came looking for me here, now, just to tell me you didn't like my imaginary alternate life for you?"

"How could I pass up a chance to finally win an argument against you?" Hiccup said, squeezing her hand gently.

"You're unbelievable," she replied, rolling her eyes, but she smiled. "So _maybe_ I took a few creative liberties here and there. I'll admit that. But my point still stands."

"You took more than a _few_ ," Hiccup scoffed. "For one thing, I refuse to believe that you'd have _actually_ ended up betrothed to Snotlout."

Astrid burst out laughing. "Is _that_ what's bugging you? You're jealous of _imaginary Snotlout_ marrying me in a made-up thought experiment?"

"There's absolutely no alternate universe where you'd be able to put up with him unfiltered for that long, let's be real here."

"But I left him for you at the end! I put that in!"

"I wasn't really sold on your whole sudden-change-of-heart thing, I'll be honest."

"Cut me some slack here! I didn't have time to work in a whole slow, romantic courtship or something. We had a war to fight!"

"Well, sure, but—"

"And that wasn't even the biggest leap I made," Astrid continued. "I didn't even get to how we'd actually _end_ the war with the dragons. I totally skipped over the Red Death, which was _kind of a big deal_ , if memory serves."

"Yeah, that's another thing! You remembered that one angry Whispering Death from four years ago, but the mountain-sized evil behemoth dragon literally _exploding_ doesn't make the cut?"

Astrid threw her hands up in frustration. "Come on, I was trying to make a point, and I _made_ it, didn't I? You try making up an inspirational story on the spot."

"Maybe I _will_ ," Hiccup said, grinning. He made a big show of stretching his arms out in front of him, cracking his knuckles in mock preparation.

"Oh, boy."

"Really, though—I think the problem with the story was that we started from the wrong place."

"How so?"

"Well, I've been thinking about it, and, well, shooting down Toothless isn't really the part that changed things for Berk."

Astrid looked at him in total confusion. "It's not?"

"No," Hiccup said. "I mean, it changed things for _me_. It changed _everything_ for me."

"Right…"

"But it didn't change anything about the way the _village_ saw things."

"Yes, it did, because you—"

Astrid tried to interject, but Hiccup kept talking.

"Not because I did anything," he said. "See, that's the biggest detail you left out of your story."

"What is?"

"You."

She raised an eyebrow. "Me?"

"Think about it," Hiccup said. "I could've shot Toothless down, found him in the woods, faked my way through dragon training up until the end, and left."

"Left?" She looked up at him, bewildered. "Why would you have left?"

"Why?" He met her gaze, his face suddenly serious. He hadn't considered that she really wouldn't know. "Astrid, that's what I was _doing_ when you found me with Toothless at the cove that day."

Her eyes widened in surprise, with a hint of something else, something Hiccup couldn't quite identify.

"You were…about to leave? As in, leave _Berk?_ "

"Did you really not know? I mean, this is…I thought this was kind of ancient history."

"Well, I guess I missed that one detail, what with the, uh, mountain-sized evil behemoth dragon, and all."

"Fair enough."

Astrid was quiet for a moment, and Hiccup could see everything she was thinking on her face as she put all the facts together.

"So you won dragon training over me," she said softly, "and you were going to just…take off? Did you even know where you were going to go?"

"Not really," Hiccup admitted. "I was fifteen. All I could really think about was getting as far away from the killing arena as possible, for as long as possible." He paused for a moment, then added, "I was planning on flying due south."

"South…" Astrid said softly. "So you never would've been caught up in the dragon stampede."

"Probably not," Hiccup agreed.

Astrid felt a chill run through her as she processed the idea. She shivered visibly. Thinking she was cold, Hiccup slung an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him.

"I had no idea," she said quietly. "When I found you there, I was…I was just angry. I wanted to win, and I wanted to know what you did to ruin it for me. That's all I was thinking about."

"Oh, I know," Hiccup said, smirking. "Pretty sure it's all my bruised ribs were thinking about for weeks afterward."

They were both remembering Astrid dropping her axe handle onto Hiccup's chest, and they both winced.

"Right," Astrid said. "That one was my bad."

"No, but that's the point," Hiccup said. "Astrid, if you hadn't shown up when you did—even if it was only to kick the living yakdung out of me for beating you—then none of this would have been possible."

"What? But I didn't—"

"Yes, you did," he said, firmly. "Listen…if we go back to that moment, and you're not there, everything changes.

"Toothless and I would have flown due south with everything we could carry. Maybe we would've survived just fine, found a deserted island, built some kind of proto-Dragon's Edge just the two of us, something like that. Or maybe, we would've flown too close to a neighbouring island, and we _both_ would've been shot down by their defences. Maybe we would've gotten hurt, or sick, or eaten by a wild Changewing. Maybe I'd have died in some way more mundane way, because, well, I was a kid, and not exactly the most careful kid."

Astrid snorted. "Yeah, the old Hiccup wouldn't have lasted a week."

"I would so!"

"Oh yeah? Tell that to Mr. 'this is my new invention, I'm going to take it and jump off a huge cliff with no backup plan.'"

"Okay, you may have a point," Hiccup said. "But what I'm saying is…I would've left. I was ready to do it. It was the only plan I had, and you were the _only_ thing that stopped me."

" _Just_ me? What about…I mean, Berk was still your home, Hiccup. Your family, all your history, the throne—"

"I wasn't thinking about any of that," Hiccup replied. "It was totally impossible to picture any of that being compatible with, y'know, a life where I didn't kill dragons."

Astrid rested her head on his shoulder. "Of course," she said. "It's crazy how hard it is to remember that feeling, even though it's only been four years. There was no way we could even imagine the kind of lives we're living now."

Hiccup turned and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "No kidding."

She smiled. "But I still don't think that makes me the _only_ thing that stopped you. It doesn't mean I can take _credit_ for—"

"For Thor's sake, Astrid," he said, gently exasperated. "Yes, it does! Without you there to stop me, I leave. Without you there to almost turn me in, I never convince you we can trust dragons. Without you up there with me, we never find the nest."

"Well—"

"Without you egging me on, we don't go after Toothless. We don't train Stormfly and the other dragons. We don't go after the ships, and practically everyone gets killed by the Red Death, including our parents. The threat level from the dragons never goes down, and without so many of our warriors, Berk doesn't necessarily survive at all."

"Okay, _that_ got a little dark."

"Maybe. But think about it!"

"I am, but—" Astrid lifted her head to look Hiccup in the eye again. "I don't buy that you _needed_ me. I don't think you would've let anything like that happen. You're braver than that, Hiccup."

"No, I wasn't," Hiccup said, his voice firm. "That's what I'm trying to say. Without you with me, I wasn't brave enough to do this. I meant what I said back at the Edge, Astrid. None of this could've happened without you, and I don't just mean the logistics."

Astrid reddened, and she looked down at the water.

"When they had Toothless captured, and we were trying to decide what to do, I had nothing left to lose," Hiccup went on. "You even said so yourself."

"Not my best motivational speech then, either," Astrid said, grinning in spite of herself.

"Definitely not," Hiccup said. "But you were right. My dad literally disowned me, the village hated me, I was basically public enemy number one, _and_ Toothless was gone."

"Right."

"But you, on the other hand—you had everything to lose! You had everyone's respect, you always had. If it hadn't been for Toothless, you'd have won at dragon training without breaking a sweat, at _least_. And forget getting betrothed to Snotlout—you'd probably be able to have your pick of the sons of all the other chiefs. You were everything Berk expected you to be."

Astrid blushed even further. She didn't know what to say.

"But you were the one who pushed me to do something," Hiccup continued. "I was so stuck, and you were right there the whole time, and you somehow knew exactly what to say to get me to react. You took this huge gamble on me, and on doing the right thing, Astrid, and if you still don't—"

She smothered the end of his sentence with a kiss, slow and hard and deliberate. After a long moment, Hiccup smiled against her lips as they broke apart—just barely—with their foreheads touching.

"Wow," Hiccup said simply, his eyes heavy-lidded, a little stunned by the kiss.

"I told you," Astrid said softly, "you were in the right place at the right time."

"Great, so we're agreed," he said, leaning in to kiss her again.


	2. Part Two: The Woods

When they finally separated again they were both a little out of breath. Astrid had hooked both her arms around the back of Hiccup's neck, and he had one hand in her hair and one around her waist. It had gotten a little colder in the time they'd been talking—and, well, not talking—and a lot darker. The points of contact between them radiated heat, and Astrid shivered for real as she pulled herself closer, leaning against him. Hiccup sighed contentedly, and she felt his warm breath on her neck.

"Are you cold?" he murmured, his lips inches from her ear.

"A little," she replied, "but don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? I can walk you home—"

Astrid smiled into Hiccup's shoulder. He was always so concerned. "No, I want to stay out a little longer," she said.

"Alright," he said, his voice low. "The offer stands, just let me know." He punctuated his sentence with a light kiss on Astrid's neck, just below her ear, and it was her turn to sigh.

With her face turned away, Hiccup smiled to himself, pleased at her reaction—but then she lifted her head and met his gaze again.

"What are you looking so smug about?" she said, smirking.

"Me? Smug? Never," he said, feigning offense. "What, I can't just smile if I want to?"

Astrid giggled and rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she said. "You know what _I_ want to do?"

"What?"

"I want to go for a walk. Down to the cove."

"The cove? Toothless is sleeping, but I guess we can take Stormfly, if you—"

"No, a _walk_ ," she corrected him. "Stormfly's asleep too. It's a nice night—why don't we go on foot? You know," she grinned, "for old times' sake?"

Hiccup looked down at her, curious. She was up to something, he could tell, but there was only one way to find out. "Alright, sure," he said, and they stood up to go.

Astrid kept shivering as they walked through town—following the docks would've meant running into Gustav on his patrol shift, and neither of them were in the mood for that—and Hiccup insisted on stopping at home to grab a fur for her. She refused to wear it for a full ten minutes of walking, not wanting to admit the stop had been a good idea, but she finally relented when they reached the cool edge of the forest.

"You sure you want to go through the woods?" Hiccup asked, wrapping the fur around her shoulders. "It's pretty dark in there."

"Stop worrying! I can handle a stroll through some trees, Hiccup."

"I know you can _handle_ it," he replied, "It'd just be pretty embarrassing if two days after defeating Johann and the Hunters you managed to break your ankle on a tree root or something."

Astrid rolled her eyes and strode past the treeline, disregarding him. "Look, not everybody's accident-prone, Hiccup," she called over her shoulder.

" _Rude!"_ he replied, clanking his metal leg noisily for effect as he rushed to catch up. "I should've known this was your plan all along."

"What was?" Astrid said, grinning and raising her eyebrows as he drew level with her.

"You lured me out into the woods in the dead of night," he said, "so you could finally make jokes about my leg."

Astrid tried and failed to suppress a laugh. "For Thor's sake, Hiccup, that's not even what I meant."

"Oh, it's not?" he said, leaning over her in mock-interrogation. "That was just an accidental turn of phrase?"

"Of course," she said, mock-indignant. "Don't go making baseless accusations at me, Hiccup, especially when you have—" she paused—"no leg to stand on."

"I knew it," Hiccup said, pointing at her in triumph. "This was all a long con, Astrid. You've just been building up to a leg joke this entire time."

"You caught me," she said, giggling. "That's what this has all been about. Our entire relationship is a sham."

"It's too much," Hiccup said, clutching dramatically at his heart. "I can't handle any more betrayal."

"What can I say, Hiccup?" Astrid said, taking a step closer to him and putting her hands on his shoulders. "You were just taken in by my grand illusion—" she kicked his right foot out from under him. "—and swept off your feet."

Caught off-guard, Hiccup lost his balance, and she caught him with one arm as he fell backwards.

"Okay, _that_ line was weak," he said, looking up at her. "Come on, you can do better than that."

"Probably," Astrid said, tossing both her arms aside and letting Hiccup flop to the ground. He landed with a crunch on the dense layer of leaves covering the forest floor.

"Two can play at _that_ game," he said, and with a quick sweep of his leg he knocked Astrid's knees out from under her, sending her sprawling onto the ground with a shriek of laughter.

"I never should've taught you to do that," she said, and they were both laughing in earnest now. She grabbed a handful of leaves and threw them at him. He retaliated with one of his own, and before long they were acting like kids, totally ridiculous, pelting each other with leaves on the ground in the woods.

Hiccup tried to lean forward and launch an armful of leaves, but his metal leg skidded behind him and lost purchase, sending him falling over Astrid with a yelp.

"Ow." He was propped up by his elbows, hovering just above Astrid, and she couldn't help but be reminded of the last time he'd accidentally wound up in this position. It was better now, though, given that she could see the look on his face. It was a little more pained than she'd expected.

"Did you…fall wrong?" she asked, as he hoisted himself a little higher over her.

"Yeah, you could say that," he said, his face contorting in discomfort. "On an unrelated note, you ever think of mixing things up wardrobe-wise?"

"What?"

"Like, maybe…not wearing a skirt with huge metal spikes?"

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Her eyes widened in realization, and she rolled out from underneath him. "I didn't even think about it."

"It's okay," he said weakly. "I guess that's pretty much what it's meant to do."

"Well, yeah, but not to _you_."

"No, eh? Do I get some kind of special treatment?" They were lying facing each other now.

"If that's what you want to call it," Astrid said, with a suggestive smile.

Hiccup raised his eyebrows. "Really."

"Yep," Astrid said, and in one fluid motion of her forearm she swept a pile of dry leaves over Hiccup's face.

He groaned in defeat from under the pile, and she took off running before he could get up, laughing gleefully.


	3. Part 3: The Cove

**Author's note: This is where we earn that M rating. Fair warning, this chapter is very explicit! No noncon or anything of the sort, but it is very much adult material, so viewer discretion is advised.**

They chased each other almost the rest of the way to the cove, doubling back to ambush each other with showers of leaves more than once. When it was finally within sight Astrid started to slow down, and Hiccup caught up to her, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her towards him. They were both panting a little, the running and laughing leaving them short of breath.

Astrid grinned up at him, her cheeks rosy. "Okay," she said, "you caught me."

"Finally," Hiccup replied, brushing a stray leaf out of her hair, and then he leaned in to kiss her. It was the same feeling they'd had when chasing each other—it felt like _pursuit_. Astrid's hands snaked around him and held him tight towards her, and he couldn't tell whose heartbeat he could feel hammering against his chest.

Hiccup had one hand on the side of her face, and the other on the small of her back, just above her belt. Her shirt must have ridden up while she'd been running, because his fingers brushed across bare skin. Instinctively he traced the exposed spot, ghosting gently up her back, and in response she deepened the kiss. It was harder, fiercer, open-mouthed, and Hiccup responded in kind.

Astrid took a hand away from the back of Hiccup's neck, with the other still at his back and without breaking the kiss. Distracted as he was, he heard an odd clinking sound that he couldn't place, and pulled back.

"What are you doing?" he murmured, his voice low.

"Wardrobe change," she said simply, and she placed both her hands on both of his shoulders, pushing him a half-step backwards so that he was up against a tree trunk. As she moved, her now-unbuckled leather overskirt fell from her hips, landing around her ankles, and in one motion she pressed her whole body against Hiccup's, kissing him hard.

The response was instantaneous, and Astrid smiled against Hiccup's lips as she felt him gasp. He wrapped his right arm around her waist, while his left hand slowly moved over her hips—nothing he hadn't done before, in their moments alone together on the Edge, of course—but feeling her this close to him, feeling _everything_ , this was different.

Astrid knew Hiccup was getting a little bolder, and she could certainly feel why. He was unmistakably hard now, and being pressed up against him—against it—like this was making her crazy. She felt him squeeze her ass, tentatively at first, but then more firmly, and she made a low sound of approval. So did he; she ground her hips just a little, relishing the feeling of his hardness rubbing against her through both of their leggings.

He groaned softly, breaking the kiss just enough to whisper her name. "Astrid…"

She replied by bending her head a little to plant a kiss on his neck, gentle and languorous, and he placed his other hand on her ass too, pulling her hips tightly towards him, grinding into her. The sensation between her legs distracted her from her ministrations for an instant, and she let out a small, higher-pitched sound.

Hiccup looked down at her in concern for a split second. "Are you—do you—do you want me to stop?"

Astrid looked up at him, her face flushed. "Don't you _dare,_ " she said, her voice breathy. Then, catching herself, she added, "Unless—unless you want to stop."

He laughed, and then she did too. "Thor, no," Hiccup said, sliding a hand up the back of Astrid's shirt, "but thanks for checking."

She pressed her lips to his again as he fumbled with the knot at the back of her bindings, something he'd discovered for the first time a few weeks ago. He insisted he could undo it one-handed, and was always determined to try; Astrid grazed his lower lip with her teeth, raked a hand through his hair, squirmed greedily against his cock, playing at distracting him. It almost worked, too—until he broke the kiss and pressed his lips onto _her_ neck, leaving slow, hot kisses that practically made her dizzy. He'd discovered _that_ little trick around the same time as the bindings, although he got the hang of it much, much quicker.

Astrid sighed in contentment, letting her chin lift up to expose more of the sensitive skin of her neck to him, and in no time the knot sprang open in his long fingers. She smiled lazily as he slipped them under the linen wrappings, loosening them, and she stifled a gasp as he brushed his palm over one hardened nipple.

Encouraged by her reaction, he slipped his other hand under her shirt, under the bindings, loosening them enough that they slipped down to her waist. He cupped a breast in each hand and caressed them gently, and then rolled both nipples at the same time with his thumbs. Astrid was especially sensitive to, well, _that_ , and she writhed against his touch, pinning him hard against the tree with her hips as she ground hungrily against him. He kissed her again, matching her, and his hands were pinned tightly between their chests, kneading at her tits, pinching her nipples a little less gently.

Most of these things had happened individually, but never all at once; Hiccup was almost overwhelmed, and he could feel his erection straining uncomfortably against his clothes. His thoughts were swimming, and each time he tugged at Astrid's nipple she whimpered softly against his mouth at a pitch that was extremely distracting.

The moon was full that night, and near the edge of the woods where they were standing, there was just enough pale silver light to see by. He wanted to see her, here, like this.

Catching her off guard, Hiccup moved his hands to Astrid's shoulders and flipped their positions, so that now it was her back pressing against the tree.

"Hey," she protested weakly, "no fair," but she pulled him close to her again anyway.

The fur Hiccup had insisted on had fallen to the ground behind them along with Astrid's skirt, and she hadn't been wearing her shoulder guards to begin with. He tugged at the hem of her top, lifting it, and Astrid, getting the idea, lifted her arms and pulled it over her head. It fell to the ground along with her bindings, and she was standing against the tree in just her leggings.

"Your turn," she murmured, lifting the hem of his red shirt. He followed suit and pulled it over his head, tossing it onto the small pile of discarded clothes.

Astrid smiled, running her hands over his bare shoulders—his subtly defined back muscles, the faint remnants of minor burn scars—and he did the same to her. They both had bruises, just starting to show up purple and angry. Battles will do that, and neither of them said anything about the shape they were both in.

Hiccup let his gaze travel from Astrid's flushed face down her neck, and he kissed her along that path, travelling down, planting kisses on the swells of her breasts, and when he finally latched onto a nipple between his lips she gasped, raking her fingers through his hair as he sucked on her, playing with the other nipple with one hand and bracing himself against the tree with the other.

His body was bent away from hers so he could reach her chest, and Astrid couldn't grind against him. Instead, she grabbed his ass with her free hand, squeezing firmly, and ran her fingers down the back of his thigh, feeling the real muscle that hadn't been there even a year before. She felt all the way down the back of his thigh, brushing her fingers against the sensitive place behind his knee, and then firmly back up the front of his thigh, lingering at the inside corner, stroking _inches_ away from where she knew Hiccup was aching to be touched.

He let out a soft moan as Astrid switched sides but didn't get any closer to the main event, and he switched to her other nipple, rolling it with his lips and tongue in a way he knew would drive her crazy, mirroring the move with his finger and thumb on the other side. As predicted, she let out a noise of approval—closer to a whimper than anything…but she kept teasing.

"Babe," he said softly, right against her breast, "please…"

"Hmm?" she said, looking down at him through half-lidded eyes, as though she'd just noticed he was there. "You mean this?"

She wrapped her hand around the bulge his cock through his pants with a firm grip, and she felt him shudder against her right away. Smiling slowly at his reaction, she pumped slowly up and down through the layers of cloth. And then, abruptly, she let go. Hiccup had just enough time to make a small sound of loss when she did, just before she slipped her hand under both of his remaining layers of clothing, wrapping her fist as far around him as it went, circling the head with her thumb. There was already a bead of precum there, and it made the head slick as she worked it slowly, concentrating on the little fold at the very front. She pumped him up and down, slowly, several times, and then went back to the circling.

Hiccup stood up straight and leaned his head back, groaning at the sensation, his hands still on Astrid's breasts. Then she did something unexpected. Frustrated at the angle, she pulled free of Hiccup's grasp and bent down to her knees, yanking his trousers and underwear down in a single motion.

"Astrid…"

"Hmm?" She looked up at him, mischief and hunger written all over her face.

"N…nothing," he mumbled. "Oh, Thor," he added, as she took his cock in her mouth. This was new. This was new, and this was incredible. "Oh, my gods, Astrid."

She had touched him before, but only experimentally—only for a few fleeting moments back on the Edge, only a couple of times. She hadn't really even gotten to see him, well, like _this_ , and now he was seeing her, here, sucking on him, and it was almost too much to handle.

Astrid looked determined; she inhaled sharply, and then took more of his shaft into her mouth, sliding it slowly in and slowly out again. It was intense, and Hiccup couldn't keep himself quiet. She took the sounds as encouragement, and on her next pass tried to go another inch—he groaned with pleasure—and then another—again—and a little more, and then suddenly she gagged, pulling back and erupting into coughs.

"S—sorry," she choked, sitting back on her heels and trying to catch her breath. Hiccup was trying to catch his, too.

"Don't be sorry, Astrid," Hiccup said, dazed. "That was—that was something else."

She coughed again, and smiled at him from the ground. Hiccup bent down too, stepping out of his boot, kicking his pants off of his metal leg where they'd been caught, and reached behind her for the large fur he'd brought from home. He unfurled it and spread it on the ground next to them. "Here, lie down for a second."

Still coughing a little, Astrid complied. He sat down next to her, trying not to be self-conscious as her eyes followed his still-prominent erection.

"Can we do something about these?" he said, tugging at her boots.

"Sure," she said, letting him pull them from her feet.

"And these?" he said, tugging at the ankles of her leggings, running a hand up the inside of one calf.

Astrid sat up and helped him remove them, and they met each other's eyes as Hiccup tossed them aside. With both of them sitting up, and with her coughing fit over, Astrid's confidence had mostly returned. Almost completely naked, on what was already a chilly night, they were both covered in goosebumps. Astrid leaned toward Hiccup and pressed her lips to his, and that was all it took to set things back in motion. They both unfurled into each other like springs decompressing—Hiccup's hands wound around Astrid's body, kneading her breasts, pinching her hard nipples, stroking the insides of her thighs; Astrid ran her hands over Hiccup's chest, kissed down his neck, held his cock firmly and pumped just enough to get a sound out of him before switching.

Astrid was almost at her absolute teasing limit. Her nipples were raw, and she had a strong suspicion that her angry purple bruises would soon be joined by a crop of telltale purple hickeys across her neck and tits. But she needed more

"Hiccup," she murmured, and he responded with a questioning noise, smothered against her left nipple.

"Hiccup, please," she said again, inarticulate in her frustration. At that, he unlatched from her breast and moved to kissing that particular spot on her neck, placing one hand on her shoulder. Slowly, deliberately, he reached his other hand down between her legs, brushing the backs of his fingers against her soft skin through the fabric of her underwear.

She whimpered at his touch, and tried to grind against his hand, but he was deliberately gentle, stroking her all the way up and all the way down with maddeningly little pressure. " _Hiccup_ ," she breathed, her voice pleading.

He reached down with one finger, probing for the right place to touch; she bucked against the pressure, trying to control the stimulation. "Hiccup, I swear to Freya—" her words were swallowed by a gasp as Hiccup found the source of the layer of wetness seeping through the fabric, the opening in the folds he knew were behind it, and pushed at it with two fingers. He thrusted into her— _almost_ into her, with her underwear as a barrier—for a delicious moment, until Astrid took control of the situation by reaching down and thrusting the crotch of her underwear to the side, looking at him with absolutely brazen need.

Hiccup didn't need to be told again; he clumsily pushed her underwear the rest of the way out of his way, and thrust his index and middle fingers inside her. The sound she made as they slid into her—it was much slicker than Hiccup had anticipated—would have been worth anything. Astrid was sitting in front of him with her knees apart, leaning her head on his shoulder, making little sounds of impact as he fingered her.

They had done this before, too, but only hastily, frantically, in stolen moments alone on the Edge where they knew they were always inches from getting interrupted. Now, Hiccup's fingers were inches inside her, pumping in and out at a luxuriously slow pace. He found a steady rhythm and she matched it, rocking against him and moaning low into his shoulder, peppering his freckled skin with kisses.

The fabric of her underwear rubbed against the side of his hand, and it was distracting him; he pulled his fingers all the way out of her—the wet sound they made making his cock twitch on some primal level—and moving to pull Astrid's last scrap of clothing off completely. She slipped out of them eagerly, leaning back and sliding them down, past her thighs, past her knees, past her ankles, and tossing them aside.

She had shifted positions to take them off, and Hiccup found himself leaning over her. As though they had planned it, they slowly leaned back, Astrid propping herself up by her elbows, knees still apart. Hiccup was on all fours above her now, his knees on the ground between hers. Their eyes locked, gazes heavy-lidded, practically delirious, and they were both breathing hard.

Astrid laid all the way back, pulling Hiccup down to kiss him. His body was suspended just above hers, and as he leaned down his body pressed against hers, hot skin against hot skin. They were both intently aware that the head of Hiccup's cock was maddeningly close to Astrid's entrance.

Hiccup pulled back from the kiss, pressing his forehead against hers, and their eyes met again. "Astrid," he breathed.

"Hiccup…" she whispered in reply, not saying anything else.

He sighed slowly. "You know we can't."

"I know," she said, "I just wish…" She slipped a hand between them, wrapping it around Hiccup's shaft and squeezing gently. She grinned at the moan that escaped his lips, and kissed him viciously again as she pumped him slowly up and down.

He shuddered at the sensation, his elbows buckling a little. "For Thor's sakes, Astrid," he said, his voice low.

Then she did something else, something they'd definitely never tried. Guiding it with her hand, she swept the head against the slit between her legs, just barely. Hiccup gasped at the feeling, his hips thrusting forward automatically. Astrid held him firm, keeping him from entering her; instead, she rubbed the now-slick head of his cock against her, further up, moving it in a slow circle on her clit.

It took a moment for Hiccup to realize what she was doing, but then he understood. She was using him to touch herself, and he felt himself harden even more as he looked down at her, eyes half-closed and faraway, smiling lazily and breathing hard.

Catching him looking at her, she tightened her grip and pumped his length up and down again, and he groaned, but it was all too brief, and she went back to circling. She was determined, and Hiccup leaned in to whisper in her ear as his free hand caressed her breast.

"I can't believe we're doing this—here," he breathed.

She smiled up at him, the flush in her cheeks spreading down her chest. "You were right," she said, breathlessly, still circling him against her centre. "This is where we changed everything."

At those words, Hiccup planted a swift kiss on her lips, then shifted his free hand so it was between her legs, beneath her hand still steadily working his cock.

Matching her hungry expression, he plunged two fingers back inside her as she ground against him, and she cried out. She bucked her hips upwards to meet his fingers, eager for more, and he pumped them into her harder and faster. Her circles were getting more and more frantic; her eyes closed and she began to bite her lip, and her grip on Hiccup's cock tightened almost painfully.

Astrid felt a heat building like nothing she'd felt before—not nearly like the vague climaxes she brought herself to when she couldn't sleep, or the few furtive and short-lived ones Hiccup had stumbled across when they'd messed around—and her breathing got deep and loud as it approached.

She pumped Hiccup up and down once more and then rubbed him against her hard and fast, just at the moment when Hiccup plunged a third finger inside her, and then it was too much. She gasped and cried out as a powerful orgasm washed over her. Her hand stiffened and relaxed, and Hiccup gasped as her cunt tightened on his fingers as she shuddered.

Astrid relaxed back down onto the fur as he withdrew his fingers, glistening with her moisture. He laid down facing her as she tried to catch her breath. " _Babe_ ," she said simply, satisfaction thick in her voice. Blearily, she reached for his hand, intertwining their fingers; she had grabbed his left hand, the one that had just been inside her, and she felt the slickness rub off on her.

"Sorry," Hiccup said, unable to keep from grinning. He was looking at her in awe.

"Don't be sorry, you idiot," Astrid replied, and she lifted his hand to her mouth, plunging his fingers into her mouth one by one, licking them clean. She couldn't say why she did it—she certainly didn't plan it—but it seemed like the right thing to do. Besides that, it gave her an idea.

She grabbed Hiccup by the shoulders and rolled him over so that she was on top of him. In this state all her movements seemed fluid, catlike—she felt relaxed, clear, purposed somehow as she knelt between Hiccup's legs and reached between her own, coating her fingers in more of her own moisture.

"What are you…" Hiccup's sentence ended in a groan as she wrapped a fist around his member, now slick with her own juices, just like it would be if they could…His thoughts were interrupted as she stroked him up and down, slowly at first and then faster and faster, enabled by the lubrication. He groaned with pleasure as she fell into a steady rhythm, and couldn't help but rock his hips in time.

"C'mere," he said thickly, reaching for her, and she leaned forward just far enough that he could grab hungrily at her tits, squeezing them and rolling her nipples in his fingers hard enough to make her squirm. The angle was awkward, and she leaned back down again, still pumping him steadily, and then taking his head in her mouth again.

It seemed she had figured out where she went wrong earlier, because this time she slowly lowered herself down onto him, taking him inch by inch, and he felt himself brush against the back of her mouth, soft like velvet. She bobbed up and down, still working him with one hand, and increased her pace as she got comfortable. Hiccup couldn't form a coherent thought.

"Astrid," he groaned, "Don't stop, Astrid,"

She made an approving noise with her mouth full of him, and it sent a wave of vibration through him. She kept going, a little faster and a little harder, encouraged by the sounds he was making.

"Astrid," he murmured, "I'm—" He assumed she wouldn't be ready for it, but he didn't know about the extensive network of Viking women's whispers that had prepared her for this. He groaned with pleasure, his eyes rolling closed, as he came; Astrid didn't miss a beat, still moving up and down on him as the hot liquid filled her mouth. She kept going, tapering off her speed, until he panted at her, overwhelmed, to tell her to stop.

Astrid met his gaze as she lifted her head, swallowing visibly. She raised her eyebrows at him, as if looking for confirmation. He grinned—he wasn't sure what more confirmation she could possibly need, but he reached for her and pulled her close to him on the ground, kissing the top of her head and holding her tight to his chest.

"That was…you're amazing," he whispered into her hair, and she smiled and nestled against him. He pulled the vacant edge of the fur beneath them around her, wishing he'd had the foresight to bring a second one.

They stayed like that, spent and holding each other, for several long moments, until the heat dissipated and they both had to acknowledge how cold the night had gotten.

"Remember that thing you said earlier?" Astrid said quietly, half-dressed, winding the strip of white linen back around her chest.

"Uh." Hiccup reddened as he tugged his pants back on. "I might've said a _lot_ of things."

"No, _earlier,_ " she corrected him, smirking. "You said I shouldn't have been betrothed to Snotlout in the story, because I could've had my pick of all the other sons of all the other chiefs?"

"Gods, Astrid, is _that_ what's on your mind?" Hiccup said, shirtless and searching for his boot.

"Well," she said, grinning as she pulled her shirt back on, "if that's true, then technically it still _is_ , right? I could have my pick of all those other future chiefs right now."

Hiccup tugged his own shirt over his head, squinting at her as she looked at him teasingly. "What, are you saying I've got competition?" he said, passing Astrid her leather overskirt.

She took it from him and buckled it into place, then grabbed his cheek and planted a kiss squarely on his lips. "I'm saying there _is_ no competition, Hiccup," she said softly. "There's no other story I'd rather be part of than this one."

His face reddened, and he looked down, smiling. He took Astrid's hand without another word, and they started to make their way back toward the village, hoping nobody had questioned their absence yet.


End file.
